Android is the "preferred platform" for terrorist groups, according to report.

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Security researchers announced Friday that they have found new evidence to bolster claims from the National Security Agency that terrorists have altered their countermeasures in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations.

"Al-Fajr, one of Al-Qaeda’s media arms, released a new Android encryption application [in] early June 2014 on their website, referring to how it follows the “latest technological advancements” and provides '4096 bit public key' encryption," intelligence firm Recorded Future said in a Friday report.

The report added that Global Islamic Media Front, another arm of Al Qaeda, just released a "new version" of Android crypto software.

"Interestingly, between these two new product releases this continues the bet on mobile and Android as the preferred platform for these groups," the report said. "The large availability and affordability of Android phones, especially in underdeveloped countries, is probably the reason for this."

The research comes a month after new NSA Director Michael Rodgers said he had seen terrorists groups "make changes." But, he said, "you have not heard me as the director say, 'Oh my God, the sky is falling.' I'm trying to be very specific and very measured in my characterizations."

Further Reading

The new report quotes a GIMF statement on a download page, in which suspected terrorists urge each other to "[t]ake your precautions, especially in the midst of the rapidly developing news about the cooperation of global companies with the international intelligence agencies, in the detection of data exchanged over smartphones."

The report concludes that "it's pretty clear" that there is an "increased pace of innovation in encryption technology by Al-Qaeda post Snowden." The encryption, the report added, "is based on best practice, off the shelf, algorithms."

What's more, the latest crypto tools follow other crypto programs terrorists have developed following the Snowden leaks.

Recorded Future reported in May that three of the tools were created within five months of The Guardian first publishing the Snowden leaks in June 2013. Citing NSA documents, The Guardian wrote that the US government had access to all the metadata of telephone calls originating or ending in the US.

One of the earliest post-Snowden crypto releases Recorded Future noted was Tashfeer al-Jawwal—a mobile program developed by the Global Islamic Media Front and released in September.

A second, Asrar al-Ghurabaa, was released by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham in November, around the same time the group broke away from the main Al-Qaeda group following a power struggle. The third program is known as Amn al-Mujahid and was released in December by Al-Fajr.

Recorded Future has a summary of various crypto tools if you're interested in learning more.

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David Kravets
The senior editor for Ars Technica. Founder of TYDN fake news site. Technologist. Political scientist. Humorist. Dad of two boys. Been doing journalism for so long I remember manual typewriters with real paper. Emaildavid.kravets@arstechnica.com//Twitter@dmkravets